Chris Hayes: Embracing Soccer Is Accepting 'the US Cannot Simply Assert Its Dominance'

On Tuesday’s “All In” on MSNBC, host Chris Hayes reacted to the United States men’s national soccer team’s 2-1 loss to Belgium earlier in the day, which eliminated them from World Cup. But according to Hayes, that loss wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Hayes explained that in his view there was lesson to be learned, which was American exceptionalism and dominance weren’t factors in this competition and therefore, that’s “ultimately alright.”

“The aversion that some hold in joining the world to embracing soccer is often weirdly tied to American exceptionalism,” Hayes said. “And once again, this year, a few anti-soccer trolls reared their ugly heads. But they really don’t matter – not when the World Cup brings so much joy to so many people. Even the president of the United States caught the game today leading staffers in a chant of ‘I believe we can win.’ And while we didn’t win, that’s ultimately alright because part of embracing a truly worldwide competition is accepting the fact the U.S. cannot simply assert its dominance. Turns out we have to play just like everybody else. There probably won’t be 25 million American viewers for the rest of the World Cup games, but the competition is going to go on without us and some amazing futbol is going to be played and I know I, for one, will be watching.”

(h/t Washington Free Beacon)

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